1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to dollies, and more particularly to a dolly useful for quickly and easily transporting a heavy object.
2. Description of Related Art
Since its invention in 1939 by Marvin Whiteman, Sr., the power trowel has become an indispensable tool in the construction industry. One of its great drawbacks, however, is that the standard power trowel is extremely heavy, requiring 2-3 strong workers to lift and move. Not only is moving such a heavy machine physically exhausting to the workers, it is also a potential source of injuries to workers who attempt to lift too heavy of a load at the end of a long work day.
Various devices have been contrived to attempt to make the power trowel easier to manage. Redmon et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,008,799, the state of the art in this field, teaches the attachment of three specially designed wheels to the blade guard of the power trowel. While the wheels make transport of the power trowel easier, there are serious disadvantages to the Redmon approach. First, it is cumbersome to attach the wheels to the power trowel because the power trowel be lifted as each of three different wheels is attached to the blade guard. This is both physically cumbersome and time consuming. Second, the manufacturer specifically warns against lifting the power trowel by the blade guard. The blade guard is not designed to support the full weight of the power trowel and the blade guard could be damaged while the power trowel is being moved.
Power trowels are only one example of a heavy object that does not have wheels and yet must be moved, at least upon occasion. The dolly described in the present invention can be easily adapted for use with many heavy pieces of equipment, such as earth compactors and other heavy machines lacking wheels. The dolly can also be adapted for use with a pallet, and the pallet can be filled with almost any heavy object, such as a generator.
Examples of prior art dollies include Granell, U.S. Pat. No. 2,200,921, and Chang, U.S. Pat. No. 5,096,265. Examples of wheeled machinery such as power trowels include Horst, U.S. Pat. No. 3,732,590, Bunger et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,091,158, Moore, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 2,134,884, Lursen, U.S. Pat. No. 3,262,377, and Pond, U.S. Pat. No. 1,591,997.
The prior art teaches various dollies for use with a heavy object such as a power trowel. However, the prior art does not teach a dolly that a single person can removably attach to a heavy object and lever the heavy object onto a pair of wheels for easy movement. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages as described in the following summary.
The present invention teaches certain benefits in construction and use which give rise to the objectives described below.
The present invention provides a dolly for transporting a heavy object. The dolly has a frame, a lifting element, and a pair of wheels. The lifting element engages a lifting point of the heavy object to enable the dolly to support the heavy object for wheeled movement. The frame is shaped to fit around the heavy object when the lifting element is removably attached to the lifting point of the heavy object. The lifting element is preferably rotatably connected to the frame to facilitate lifting the heavy object onto the dolly. Each of the pair of wheels is operably attached to the frame and aligned along an axis to support the heavy object between the pair of wheels such that the center of gravity of the heavy object is located approximately on the axis when the lifting element is attached to the lifting point of the heavy object.
A primary objective of the present invention is to provide a dolly for transporting a heavy object, the dolly having advantages not taught by the prior art.
Another objective is to provide a dolly that can be easily attached to the heavy object without requiring the user to lift the heavy object, and then allowing the user to lift the heavy object onto a pair of wheels using the dolly as a lever.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following more detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way of example, the principles of the invention.